Hadrian’s use of Greek identity during the High Empire
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2011
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Abstract
Upon the accession of the Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 117, the Roman Empire had reached
its greatest physical extent. With an empire that stretched from Spain to Mesopotamia and from
Britain to Northern Africa, the ruler of the Roman Empire was ostensibly the ruler of the
Western world. On the heels of a beloved and notably expansionist emperor, Hadrian succeeded
to the rule of an empire in its prime. Although he is now remembered as one of the greatest and
most influential emperors of Rome, his rule was complicated by a complex relationship with
Roman tradition and his own tendency toward philhellenic multiculturalism. The empire was
united under a single ruler and the laws of Rome, but it was by no means a homogeneous.
Although local customs and traditions were often left intact or incorporated into the Roman way
of life, there are cases in which they fell into conflict with Roman tradition. Even when they
were not in direct conflict with Rome, however, there was a general sense of what was Roman
and what was not and Roman provinces did run the risk of seeming more like fringe territories
than equal partners in a Roman alliance ... This paper will focus specifically on the paradox between Greekness as erudition and
Greekness as effeminacy. Although there were several aspects of Greek culture that would
detract from a man’s Romanness, Hadrian seemed to have fashioned his public image in such a
way that he embraced and flaunted his philhellenism while still maintaining and in many ways
bolstering his own romanitas.